Tools to ease food prep

Summertime offers lots of opportunities for fun eating, but sometimes the prep work is pure drudgery. These specialized gadgets make it all a little easier.

By Heidi Knapp Rinella Las Vegas Review-Journal

July 12, 2017 - 12:20 pm

Buttering corn is a snap with The Butter Once curved knife. Butter Once

Chef’n
The QuickPit Cherry Pitter by Chef'n makes quick work of a real chore.

Chef’n
Make Thai-style ice cream like the pros with this Chef’n Sweet Spot Ice Cream Maker.

Butter Once
Buttering corn is a snap with The Butter Once curved knife.

Summertime offers lots of opportunities for fun eating, but sometimes the prep work is pure drudgery. These specialized gadgets make it all a little easier.

Rolled Thai-style ice cream is the hottest cool stuff to hit Las Vegas lately, but you probably didn’t know you can make it at home, with the Chef’n Sweet Spot Ice Cream Maker. You put together an ice cream mixture complete with desired mix-ins (a recipe book is included) and pour it onto the surface of the device after it’s been in the freezer overnight. The mixture will begin to freeze immediately, and you use the two included tools to scoop and roll like a boss. $49.99 at chefn.com.

It’s cherry season and few things are sweeter — but few things are more of a pain than pitting cherries by hand. The QuickPit Cherry Pitter, also from Chef’n, makes quick work of pitting cherries, or olives if you choose. The one-handed pitter has an easy-to-use design and is top-rack dishwasher safe. $9.99 at chefn.com.

Buttering corn may not be a challenge, but trying to reconcile the flat blade of a table knife with the curved surface of an ear of corn often ends with the butter skittering all over the place. Enter Butter Once, which promises to live up to its name. The Butter Once has a curved knife, which is engineered to hold just enough butter for an ear, and to hold it until the ear is evenly coated. $6.95 at butteronce.com.

The more than 3,000-room Bellagio hotel is situated on the site of the former Dunes Hotel. The Dunes was imploded in 1993, and construction of the Bellagio started in 1996. It cost $1.6 billion to build, making it the most expensive hotel in the world at the time. The Bellagio was former Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn’s second major casino on the Strip after The Mirage. MGM Resorts International acquired the property from Steve Wynn in 2000. (Tara Mack/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Country superstar Jason Aldean discusses his feelings about playing in Las Vegas and says he'd be interested in a Las Vegas residency when the time is right at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas on September 21, 2018.(John Katsilometes/Las Vegas Review-Journal)